Barr announces initiative to reduce gun violence

U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr on Wednesday announced a new initiative, Project Guardian, designed to reduce gun violence and enforce federal firearms laws across the country.

Barr said while reducing gun violence and enforcing federal gun laws have always been among the Department of Justice’s highest priorities, Project Guardian draws on some of the department’s earlier successes to develop “a new and robust effort to promote and ensure public safety.”

The project focuses on investigating, prosecuting and preventing gun crimes, according to a Justice Department announcement.

The department calls it a complementary effort to another initiative, Project Safe Neighborhoods, a national initiative to reduce gun violence established in 2001, and said it “emphasizes the importance of using all modern technologies available to law enforcement to promote gun crime intelligence.”

Noting gun crime remains a pervasive problem in many communities across the country, Barr said Project Guardian “will strengthen our efforts to reduce gun violence by allowing the federal government and our state and local partners to better target offenders who use guns in crimes and those who try to buy guns illegally.”

In the Eastern District of Arkansas, U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland said a successful effort to prioritize gun crimes is “paying off.”

“Since our renewed focus on firearm cases, Pulaski County has seen a 24% reduction in homicides and a 55% reduction in non-fatal shootings,” Hiland said in a news release accompanying Barr’s announcement.

“Our prosecutors have the fifth-largest caseload in the nation, and we are proud of the work we are doing to keep our communities safer.”